That Parry Girl
by travelchica
Summary: Chase finds a chink in the armor of the sons of Ipswich and intends to exploit it for all she is worth If you keep your friends close, and your enemies closer; where do you keep the ones you love? And were do you keeps the ones who hurt you? Rated M for later chapters.
1. Introduction & Hello

This story was started several years ago and have evolved and grown as my writing has. It was originally posted here as The Parry girl, but this version is further advanced and written beyond 3 chapters.

Thank you to those who have followed me over from the previous version of this story. And HELLO to those of you who are reading my work for the first time.

Now on with the story


	2. Chapter 1 Find yourself

Chapter one: Find yourself, lose the others

"He's my best friend." I yelled letting every ounce of the anger I felt shoot towards my mother as she stood opposite me in a stance and state of passionate anger that echoed my own. We certainly weren't the poster couple for mother daughter relationships; in fact we were the exact opposite. Never in my life could I remember her and I sharing a heartfelt moment or loving hug. My mother believed in status and appearance, just not the ones relating to how her children viewed her. Suddenly, now, she was taking an interest in my life, but not in a way I needed her help or advisement. Not that those were things she offered. Instead she walked in with her perfect designer heels and dictated the next weeks of my life.

"He's you're brother and they are _his_ friends. I think you are too close and far too dependent on them and him. This time apart will help you find yourself." She spoke in her sickly sweet voice as if trying to reason with the child I has once been, not the woman that stood before her. She was dictating who and who not were suitable friends for me to have. "Maybe introduce you to a new circle of friends. Perhaps female friends"

The idea of finding myself was ridiculous to me, I knew who I was and where I was going. It was her that was confused by how much sway she could have on my life. "So we share friends; we're siblings of the same age its natural we'd share friends. Is that really the problem or do you have an issue with the fact that I've chosen to date one of the Sons?" I blasted back at her verbally. "You know you could send me to the moon and you won't be able to break this bond I have with Pogue or even the connection I have with the rest of them and you totally can't destroy what Caleb and I have."

This had been an ongoing fight ever since she'd suggested a trip away back at the beginning of the school year, then it had been the summer in Europe with her; an idea I detested purely on basis of the company it threatened. Since then the idea had evolved, the latest version; 6 weeks with my aunt in Florida. My aunt was my mother's sister and therefore not in on the little family secret.

I was confidant of every word I spoke as I said it, I'd been born into this ready-made group of best friends when I was born into the Covenant it wasn't something miles could break.

I was a rarity as a girl born to the founding families of Ipswich a fact not lost on any of the boys, even baby boy thought I was in need of protection. I was also a girl that carried the powers, by no means was I gifted to be as strong as the boys, but I carried the power and the gift. My mother and recently Evelyn, Caleb's mother, had worried the effects of any child I would bare in the future even more worried should the child be fathered by a son of Ipswich. Namely Caleb. Trust me, it wasn't a likelihood any time soon and certainly not the high school side of College, but mothers worry and they worried enough to think Caleb and I need to be parted.

"Your plane leaves tomorrow morning and you will be on it Samantha, trust me if I have one power it is the power as your mother and you are going to Florida." She said sternly and meant every word of it. I know which battles to fight, I know which ones I'd lose and that one I'd just lost.

My mother turned on her Gucci heel and stalked from the room. I didn't need to use the power to slam the door, I wanted the satisfaction of doing it by hand. Jumping up from my bed I seized the door and threw it hard at the door frame slamming it hard feeling the shake of the floor as it reverberated from the impact.

I may have fought the battle with a little maturity, but I could and would still take the loss as a typical teenager. Stalking across the floor, my feet banging with every step, I reached my cd player and hit play. The music blasted drums and guitar tunes through the room. My hand turned the dial to full and the room filled with the tones and bass. In a single step I crossed to the bed and flopped on to it face first. My head buried in the pillow as I screamed my frustration. Across the room my mirror smashed unseen.


	3. Chapter 2 This is a welcome home?

Chapter two : Coming home

I could have sat on a 4 hours flight sitting in first class and sulked for a few days at home, but that was not for me, I decided to take the bus to get over my anger and make my homecoming a happy time. The bus as old and cramped and managed to bounce along every bump and pothole as it made its way from the Orlando terminal up the east coast towards home. Had they never heard of resurfacing? Or did people seriously not travel these roads? Was road travel really not done anymore? The passengers were just a bumpy and certainly a little more than holed. The lady beside me had a story for every town we passed, while the man behind my seat wanted to give me a botany lesson in the price of my ticket.

At least one thing the trip taught me; I was not a Greyhound girl.

The ride was, as I should have expected, hell and did nothing to help soothe my mood which actually seemed to grow greyer and darker as the bus moved north towards the green coast. If I was honest the weeks in Florida hadn't been as terrible as I'd been expecting them to be, my aunt Sarah wasn't nearly as terrible as my mother who was, apparently, a serious flaw in my grandparents child rising history. Sarah was the spinster aunt (My mother's words) who never had kids and lived life on the wind. By my definition she was the cool member of my family.

The only down side had been the lack of contact from home. I could have gone a few life times and happily never heard from my parents, but the boys were a different matter. Even when I was home I'd hear from them in text or calls daily, several times a day. Not hearing from them was like losing a piece of myself – literally in Pogue's case - but I refused to believe my mother's plan had succeeded. It was summer, they were boys – it had been my excuse, but it had only stuck for so long.

I had no anger towards the boys, not even Caleb, I suspected my mother had a hand in their lack of contact. No doubt she had enforced the idea of it been _my_ time. What did that mean? I had my time, I wasn't surgically attached to any of them.

It certainly wasn't as if I had trouble been myself with them. I was born into them and was myself with or without them. What she wanted was to separate me from them, I just didn't know why. The several hundred miles from Ipswich to Florida had clearly worked, despite myself assured belief it wouldn't; I was separated from them.

Maybe they forgot that phones and emails worked both ways?

I'd called and emailed daily at first before realizing that they didn't seem to be returning calls or checking their voice mails. Emails slowly dwindled to once a week then fell off completely. I'd clearly underestimated my mother's power, but still I wasn't mad at the boys. I assumed we'd fall back into the relationships we'd always had, that time and distance wouldn't stop our bonds.

The bus made its way back towards Massachusetts as I stared out of the window, glanced at one of the several books I'd bought for the trip and tried to avoid my fellow passengers attempts at conversation. Long stints of sitting along with several transfers and waits in strange, identity less stations had given me time to lose myself in the pages and changing faces, but the closer to home the less escape I craved. Quick changing scenery along with long breaks of little change. The longer the bus ride took, the more I wished I'd taken the flight and sulked at home to get over the anger. The quicker I had been home the quicker it would all have blown over, right?

Eventually the scenery became somewhat familiar, the weather shifted to a grey haze and the vegetation became more green and fresh looking. It was calming. A feeling of homecoming washed over me in growing waves the closer the bus edged towards Ipswich. It was like every mile the wave would build towards my homecoming.

Before leaving Florida I had called home and spoken to my father to tell him of my change in plans. Like everything I did he didn't try to understand his only daughter just agreed; that was the extent our father daughter relationship. In truth, I don't think my father understood either of his children; perhaps his ignorance kept him happy.

After telling the father what time my bus would arrive he offered, rather weakly, to pick me up. I refused. I assumed once I told Caleb, Pogue at least, that they would collect me and I didn't want the silent car ride with my father.

When I've tried to call each of the boys, no one picked up. In frustration I resorted to emails and text messages neither were answered from anyone.

Along the road I had sporadically made contact with home leaving messages with Gamma.

Gamma was mine and Pogue's nanny growing up, far be it for my mother to raise her own children. My mother had claimed twins were more difficult and she needed help. As a result Gamma raised us. My Gamma had raised my father before us and she was the only person not married or born into the Covenant that had knowledge its existence.

As the highway turned to a regular road then the bus turned in to Main Street, I finally felt like I was coming home. I knew one of the boys would be there to meet me and had just neglected to tell me.

Faith is often misplaced when it is in friends just as assumption is the mother of fuck ups.

As the bus pulled to a stop I stood stretching my tired legs and stiff back before collecting my bag and following the short line of others getting off in Ipswich, surprisingly more then I'd expected; maybe the town was a tourist spot?

Normally we were over shadowed by the far more historic Salem, if people did their homework they'd quickly realize that the witch hunts, and subsequent trials, started here in Ipswich. But far be it for our town to tell its own history, we let Salem burn its own tourist fire.

After grabbing my bags from the driver I made my way to the small bench and dumped them on the ground. Looking up and down the sparse main street I saw no cars I recognized and no one hanging around waiting for me.

My phone was blank when I pulled in from my pocket; no missed calls, no text messages and no emails.

Where the hell was someone? Anyone?

My bus wasn't early, so I figured they must be late. It wasn't unusual, my brother would be late for his own funeral and Reid considered late his own personal version of on time.

After 30 minutes grace I'd had enough, I was too stubborn to call anyone, so I opted for a cab.

Pulling up at the grand entrance of my family home should have been a great homecoming with smiles and hugs. Instead I slipped the driver a $50 and climbed the cold stone steps with my own luggage.

A bell hop the cabbie was not even with the over the top tip.

Kicking open the large front door I relished in the loud bang it sounded as it snapped back and hit the ornately decorated wall.

"I'm home" I called out, only to have my own voice echo back.

An empty house, great thing to come home to.

Pulling my luggage in to the hall I swung the door shut and was rewarded with another echoing slam, it lacked the same pleasure when no one else could hear it.

I checked the library and study as I made my way towards the kitchen at the back of the house. Other than my bed room the kitchen was the other room I'd spent a lot of time in, not cooking, just spending time with Gamma.

Now the familiar room, like the rest of the house, stood empty.

Crossing to the wall I clicked the button on the answer machine and the mechanical voice mocked me with no messages.

I wanted to scream. Had everyone forgotten about me?

Now with more anger in my steps I used the old servant's staircase from the kitchen up to the second floor. The staircase went all the way to the attic where servants had once lived, but now our maid, gardener and father's man servant were all live out. Gamma's husband was our butler before he died a few years ago; she lived in a cottage on the grounds more a family member then servant.

Stomping up each of the stairs quickly hurt my legs so I slumped up the last steps entering the upstairs hall through a hidden door.

The silence that hung in the air seemed to mock me with its quiet. The dust motes danced through the sun light that leaked through the heavy drapes as I moped down the hall.

I was pissed off.

Pissed off at the boys for not even acknowledging my messages. Pissed off at dad for not passing on the message or meeting me anyway. And most of all I was pissed off at mom for sending me away in the first place.

My room was just the same as I had left it, even a slight layer of dust had settled on my dresser and my computer which I wiped at as I turned on the machine.

I figured I should check my emails before hating all the males in my life, maybe my cell server was slow? Though even on the greatest of days the trip from like to hate wasn't a very long one in regards to certain boys I considered friends and family.

As the machine booted I slipped out of my stiff travel clothes and headed to the shower hoping the rush of water and some calming body gel would relax my temper and knotted muscles.

Also, it was Sunday night.

Sunday night, actually most nights in the small town, meant one thing; Nickys.

Nicky's was a small bar, shack rather, in the warehouse distract of town. Everyone went there; there was little else to do. Music was great, company was ok and the food was passable; everything you needed for a multi age hang out.

All the shower managed to do was refresh my body, not my mood.

A down side to the refreshed feeling was the fresh coal for my anger to dpring from when my inbox turn up empty of any emails other than spam. Not one of those ass holes had even bothered to reply.

I turned off the computer without even shutting it down. Ok, so it wasn't the computers fault, but it felt good to have the control to kill something.

Dressing was an easy choice, my mode of transport for the evening dictated that dresses and skirts weren't an option.

My bike, Ducati like my brothers, flame red.

The color matched my temper.

Bikes were the only thing my brother and I had identical. Same model, same year, bought same time, but different colors. Yellow wasn't my style.

Dressing in jeans, heeled boots and a corset top I slipped a leather biker jacket over the top to keep the chill out.

Keys in hand I stomped out of the room and headed off to Nicky's to tell the boys what I thought of my so called home coming.

_**So my dears, what do you think? **_

_**What will she find when she gets to Nicky's? Where was everyone?**_

_**And should I keep going with this? I have a lot of twists, turns and orders coming up.**_

_**R & R**_

_**TC**_


	4. Chapter 3 Nickys

_So sorry for the delay, my hard drive had 'issues'. All fixed now!_

_TC_

Chapter three : Nicky's

Nicky's is Nicky's. It's the only explanation to offer until you step inside and see for yourself.

To see is to believe or at least understand.

Set in the warehouse district Nicky's is best seen in partial light with great music playing and friends close by. The food was palatable and the music ok for dancing.

I wasn't sure what kind of reception I'd be getting there, but I had as much right to be there as the boys so I wasn't about to skip out on it just for their sake. I was angry and sitting at home wallowing in that anger wasn't the way I wanted to spend my last night of freedom. Perhaps a public location wasn't the best place to face the Sons angry either, but I wasn't thinking logical.

Cutting the engine on my bike I kicked the foot stand down and swung my leg over the body until I was standing next to my bike. Reminded me of a line from a movie, and I could ride my bike just as well I could stand next to it. Like my brother, I preferred the bike over cars anytime. Though the boys all drove cars, there was something freeing about the feel of the wind wrap around you as you hit 75 miles per hour.

I knew my bother and the boys were inside, I didn't need any 'twin sense' or Power for that. The Hummer, Mustang and, the matching pair, to my bike told me all I needed to know about whom to expect on the inside.

Where else would they be the night before the start of school? Early nights weren't the coolest thing, and the boys had an image to keep up; some more the others.

Unzipping my jacket I headed towards the corrugated iron walls of the building, even they couldn't keep the music from seeping out. It was bass. A constant bump, bump, boom not unlike the dancing would be inside; bump, bump, grind. I slipped off my coat as I opened the door and was enveloped by the pulsing music and oppressive heat; it was like Florida all over again except this heat carried the smell of bodies and fired burgers.

The dance floor already filling up with bodies, some faces I recognized from school others I'd never seen before.

I nodded and small talked my way towards the pool tables at the back of the club. It was the lighter part of the bar and a good vantage point to search for my brother and the boys. I didn't have to look far. From a fair distance I stopped and watched my brother, older brother may I point out, slap money down on the table with his boys as they betted over a girls underwear. The poor, unknowing girl's skirt blew up and the ever mature Pogue walked away with the money and in my general directions without seeing me.

"Are you ever going to grow up?" My words were dipped with the anger I felt.

Pogue's head spun like the child from the exorcist and his face contorted like something out of the alien movies. He'd either genuinely forgotten to pick me up, or had forgotten to make up an excuse. I wasn't about to give him the chance to think of one now.

"You left me sat at the bus station." I said stepping towards him my heels clicking as I walked, but it was swallowed by the bass of the music. "And no one was home when I got there. Did you just forget about me?"

Pogue, Christopher on his birth certificate, was taller than me, only just as I was wearing heels now my head reached his nose and I looked up as I accused him.

Annoyingly enough he stay cool and calm, even ordered his food and a drink over his shoulder as I stood before him.. The calmer he acted the more pissed off I got. It was always this way, he knew to keep calm and I would burn myself out, but not this time. This anger could burn a hole in the sun and I was aiming it at him in absence of the other boys.

"Pogue!" I scolded with a yell that the music couldn't swallow.

All summer I'd thought about coming home to my brother, boyfriend and best guy friends. All summer long even as they ignored me. Obviously seeing his sister hadn't been a priority for my brother.

The two of us had always been so close growing up, more than just the twin thing. He was my best friend, even above my girlfriends. I trusted him with everything. Nothing could come between us, atleast up until this point.

"Look, I was busy. My bike needed to be fixed, and Caleb had errands to run. Baby boy and Reid were recovering from the Dell Party." Pogue rattled off excuses like a grocery list he'd been programmed to remember.

"I think their old enough to make their own excuses." I snapped, "I was more interested in why my own brother didn't meet me." He of all the men in my life should have been there. I was expecting busy, forgot, 'that was today', someone else was going to do it. Those I could almost forgive. I didn't expect his actual excuse.

"Look mom told me not to. We're to stay away." He said with a shrug, "You know that was what the summer was about for you and us."

Us like we were some high school relationship that might fizzle out with distance. Not siblings who shared everything. Twins couldn't fizzle out, atleast that's what I thought until I came home to nothing.

Brainwashed!

Ass hole!

Invasion of the body snatchers?

"What the hell, Pogue?" I asked shocked and dismayed.

Pogue never did as he was told, never listened to our parents and usually thrived on going against the grain. He shrugged again and collected his hamburger and coke and headed away from the bar.

I followed. I wanted answers and I saw just the guy who would give me them.

"Caleb?" I called out as I approached the table. He was by the foosball table with some guy I didn't know. Tall, dark, handsome…just like the Son's.

The boy in question looked up at me as I called out to Caleb, he smiled warmly; more then I got from my own brother.

Caleb nodded as if I was just a friend, no hug, no smile – nothing. Before summer we couldn't keep our hands off each other, much to our mother's protests and worry.

"Caleb." I said as I drew level with him. Back by the table I could see Kate, another friend, sat with a blonde I'd never seen before. I smiled a quick hello at my friend then turned back to Caleb and the new boy just as Pogue approached. "So you're listening to the parents now too?" I asked accusingly.

To his credit he, unlike me had manners and he always did. Nodding to the guy across the table from him he introduced us. "Chase this is Samantha, Sam this is Chase, he just transferred in." He said in his ever so polite tone as he nodded the introduction. "Can we talk about this later?" He asked me. His mouth moved so quick he barely spoke, but I heard the words.

A shrug, it was all I offered. I didn't trust my words and I wasn't sure I wanted to make a fuss in front of this new guy who was looking at me with more interest than Caleb was.

"Reid and Tyler are here." Pogue said interrupting.

"Where?" Caleb and I asked though, no doubt, for different reasons. I wanted to see what the younger two boys had to say for themselves.

"Over by the pool tables.."

"In just the direction I was headed." I smirked. Both Caleb and Pogue looked at me, both warning me now wasn't the time or place to start anything with them or the other two. If they could choose to listen to the mothers then I could choose to ignore them.

That was all I needed I started off towards the pool tables, making my way through the crowds that seemed as if they'd swelled in size since I arrived. Reaching the tables I watched the game for a while, Tyler - sweet innocent Tyler - nodded to me and looked sheepish. Reid offered me his trade mark grin that told me he didn't think he had anything to be guilty for.

Against the boys was the school jerk. Aaron Abbot and his crew played opposite the Tyler and Reid. The game was an easy win. Aaron and his boys thought players, but Reid was a pool shark in a whole different pond to them. I saw the shot, it would have gone in without our unique brand of 'help', but Reid had to push it. Reid always had to push it.

When all hell broke loose I looked toward my brother and Caleb. I may have been mad at them, but when it came to our secret no fight we had could rule over that. I didn't see Pogue, I saw Caleb and the blonde on the dance floor…my heart sank, my blood boiled and every instinct screamed at me to Use to do anything to get them apart. Before I could do anything Reid and Tyler were swept outside and Pogue and Caleb were following.

I was torn, should I follow or stay? Either way it was bound to be trouble because if I stayed I wasn't sure I could keep my mouth shut with that girl around. A fight outside with all the Sons or one here between me and the blond; someone was bound to Use.

I followed them; common sense won out and by the time I got outside Reid was already lording his power over Caleb. A useless show of power because Caleb was still marginally stronger until he ascended then he'd be greatly stronger then all of us. I didn't say anything, part of me wanted to watch any one of the four of them get their asses handed to them. I longed to see them paid back for the jerks they'd been listening to the parents and forgetting me

I watched as Reid was thrown into the glass storage crates and as the boys divided off into their twosomes, would anything ever change? Except this time it wasn't me that was ready to go to Caleb's side, it was the blond. I seethed. I glared, at her then at my brother and finally at Caleb. I turned on my heel and strode back to my bike.

"Sam!" It was Caleb and suddenly I wasn't so interested in the boy I'd longed for all summer.

I pushed my helmet on to my head harder than my head or my hair deserved, and swung my leg over the bike.

"Sam! Hold up." It was Pogue this time and as far as I was concerned he deserved to be treated with the same anger as Caleb.

I revved the engine and kicked off deliberately riding too close to the blonde sending her stepping back. I revved again as I hit the street and took off in to the night.

**Reviews fuel the hamster wheel of inspiration ;)**


	5. Chapter 4 Darkling

I should have gone home and gone to sleep. Early to bed early to rise and all that BS, but my head was spinning with the events of the day and especially the night. I was more than a little jealous about the blond; whoever she was clearly she had some hold over Caleb to be that close to the Sons already. The speed she had appeared outside while they were fighting….a few seconds earlier and the evening may have been spent explaining how one of them could throw the other across the space without even moving. Oh how a part of me wished that could have been the conversation of the evening.

No instead I had spent my night brooding. Pogue would have called it sulking, but whatever it was it was best experienced at high speeds on an open road. Screaming helped and blended into the night at break neck speeds. And that was my plan, I rode for hours and put serious miles on my bike.

I could only ride out my aggression for so long.

The house was still in darkness when I got home. Any other girl my age may have come home to an irate mother and a furious father; my home comings were empty. It wasn't unusual for my family home to be empty, Pogue preferred to live at school, my father preferred the office and my mother way happier at a mall or spa. Tonight I suspected my mother was probably celebrating her and Evelyn's great triumph; the divide between myself and the Sons.

It was late, but I was wired and sleep was the last thing on my mind. Charging my anger and energy into something good and productive I did my laundry. I may have had a nanny growing, but I knew how to work a washing machine which is more than can be said for my brother. Pogue lacked the basic domestic skills, another difference between myself and my twin , I hoped whoever he married was ready for a 6 foot tall child, unless they needed their bike fixing then he was their man.

Two loads later washed and folded I felt calmer, marginally. My body was ready for bed, and I didn't think my head and mind was far behind. Climbing into bed I switched off the light and lay still trying not to think of the boys, but my head was filled with them. It was like trying to not think about breathing suddenly all you can do is concentrate on the rhythmic in and out of the breath, now my mind was flooded with images of them from childhood through to the looks on their faces as I drove away from Nicky's

My head touched the pillow and my eyes fluttered closed slowly the images faded to black and I gave over into sleeping.

When they opened again it felt like only minutes later and my mind was filled with the kind of confusion you get when your brain isn't quiet awake. I assessed the reasons for waking; no noise, I wasn't cold, it wasn't time to wake up. While my sleep addled brain ran these checks I started to feel the reason I had been woken. It was a tingly chill that started the skin of my shoulder where my blanket failed to cover and spread over my arm and body. It was a tingle that moved like a slow stream of cold water over my warm skin. A tingle that moved like a languid look, a look of been watched.

I couldn't remember my parents ever checking on me even as a child, so I knew it was not them. Pogue wasn't a creeper type, had he come home at all he would have seen my room in darkness and gone to his own room. So there was no one logical that this gaze could belong too. My brain made those assessments as my body made the plan to sit up.

Bolting up in bed I clung to the blankets and pulled them around like shoulders like a scared girl in a b grade horror. Clearly sleep had stopped my brain remembering I could throw the person across the room if I choose.

My eyes scanned the dark room. With the blinds closed it was dark, but even in that darkness shadows stood out. But he wasn't a shadow, nor was it a shining light. Across the side of my room, between my computer and my dresser something stood watching me, clearly indifferent to the fact that I had woken and shot up. It merely stared at me. Its skin glowed like a Tv that had only recently turned off.

His eyes were dimmer then his pale skin giving them a sunken appearance, he was standing, watching me. He was still, deathly still.

As with my earlier reactions I gave what was an utterly girlie reaction; I screamed.

My eyes locked on him as my scream broke some spell and the thing evaporated like mist. In that instant I knew what it was, that sealed it; A Darkling.

I had screamed into an empty house. I doubted anyone would be home and if there were our house was probably too big to be heard anywhere other than the room either side of my own. No one was coming to rescue me from the now vanished Darkling.

My hand shot out to the bedside table and pulled the light to life. The room was empty and just as it had been a few hours before when I plunged it into darkness. My hand shook, my body was tense and my eyes alert. Now my hand fumbled for my cell phone as my eyes continued to scan the room. I didn't need to see my phone to hit speed dial, certainly not the speed dial I used most often, funny how I was calling the one person I wanted to speak to the least.

The phone rang a couple of times then stopped. I didn't wait for him to say hello, his name was out of my mouth as soon as the chimes stopped.

"Sam?" He asked through the line. His voice was coated with the husky tones of sleep, even now my heart reached out for that familiar tone. I knew I had woken him, but I needed him.

"I saw a Darkling in my room." Even saying it didn't feel real. Darklings were like ghost stories torn from the pages of the Book of Damnation. They were not something you woke up to find facing you in the night.

"What? You too?" His voice didn't have any hints of disbelief of my story, but he seemed shocked. Me too? Who else?

"Who else?" I asked out loud. Had Pogue called him? Was this something that was after me and my brother?

"Never mind, I'm on my way." He hung up without another word. He didn't ask if I was ok, or if I needed him. He didn't offer to call Pogue or ask if anyone was home. No Caleb did what Caleb did; took charge. I didn't expect him to come over, I wasn't even sure I wanted him over. I told him because it was what we did when something to do with the Power happened. We told Caleb, and then we told each other.

Part of me, perhaps a deluded part, hoped Caleb was coming over to hold me and make sure I was ok, though it was probably more to do with a darkling appearing to me then getting all close and cozy with his ex. Part of me even suspected he was coming because of my earlier attitude. Caleb was our leader, he was born to be our leader because he was born first and would ascend first. He ran a tight group and while Tyler maybe the peace maker it didn't mean Caleb allowed problems to go unsolved. So I highly doubted his appearance would mean a reunion for us.

I threw on a pair of sweats and made my way through the house to the front door. I was timid, even thought I knew it was unlikely that a darkling was hiding around the corner part of me was still scared. I sat on the bottom step of the staircase and stared out of the door. It wasn't long before headlights lit up the glass pane. I thought of the amount of times I'd left the house and greeted Caleb in the drive way, or left the house with him and climb into his car. They'd be no more now I was sure.

Pulling open the door before he knocked I offered a smile. He had clearly thrown on whatever was close as he stood on my porch in sweats and a school swim shirt, his hair was messed from sleep and he looked as tired as I now felt.

"Hey" I offered with a watered down half smile. My mine spun with questions about the blond; had she been in his bed? Who was she? How long had it been going on? I was jealous and hurt; Hell hath no fury….

Caleb stepped inside and closed the door as stepped back. "Hey." He echoed. Nothing about him been in my house in the middle of the night was out of place yet everything about it felt awkward.

"I need to get some sleep. Got to be up bright and peppy for school tomorrow." I turned to head up the stairs; suddenly I wished I'd told him not to come. Where was he going to sleep? Why was he here?

Never had such a single thing raised so many questions for me. And never had anything Caleb done caused me to question anything. It was certainly a day of changes.

I didn't hear him follow, but I stopped in the middle of the staircase and waited. I knew him, he was going to say something. He wouldn't yell or start a fight, but he would speak with this maddening calm that would make me want to scream and yell back and the whole time he would be calm.

"Are we going to talk about earlier?" He asked calmly.

I considered ignoring the question, I could keep walking and pretend I hadn't heard, but he would probably follow. "What should I say? Or are you waiting for me to apologize for been rude?" I knew he didn't mean the incident with the Darkling, he meant the incident at Nicky's.

I hadn't turned and from what I could hear he hadn't moved. We stood in an empty house, feet away from each other and nothing. This was the man whom 7 weeks ago I was sure I'd marry, this guy knew more about me then my own family and now I couldn't even look at him.

"You were rude, but I understand."

"You understand?" Now I turned. My anger that I thought had ebbed earlier rose hard and fast. "You understand what it's like to come home and not be met, then come to an empty house and then find your boyfriend with another girl? Oh well if you understand that's fine then. Thank you Caleb, thank you for understanding my outburst!" My words dripped with sarcasm, it'd be hard not to catch it.

He stood and looked at me. His sleep filled face fell a little as I mentioned the blond and I wondered if he had left her in bed or if he regretted me finding him. "Look we were told-"

"-Yea I know. The mothers said not to meet me, but did they hook you up with the next girl to arrive in Ipswich too? Or was that just luck?" I cut him off and glared at him. How could he listen to the Mothers and take up with another girl without even talking to me? How could he close me out?

Now he shrugged, it was a trait I was more familiar with from Pogue, but it seemed to fit this situation. It was a shrug of resignation as if he was defeated and knew he was wrong.

"Yea I don't know either, but I do know that nothing is how it was when I left." I turned and headed back up the stairs towards my room and solace. I was half way up the stairs before I spoke again. "Are you coming?" I meant bed, it didn't have to be mine in fact any other bed in the house was probably wiser, but Caleb had other ideas.

I heard him take the steps two at a time and fall in step beside me. "Did it try to touch you? Where was it?" he asked as we moved towards my room.

I didn't look at him, I couldn't look at him. Beneath my skin I could feel the anger, it was like an itch waiting to be scratched and all that would scratch it was yelling at him. "It was in my room just watching me. You saw it too, didn't you?" If Pogue had seen it he would have been here too so Caleb could get both stories, I knew now it was Caleb who had seen it.

We reached my door before he spoke again. "Yea I woke out of a dead sleep and it was there. Something woke me, but it wasn't that…someone was using."

"Well for that you will have to look elsewhere." I defended myself even as I thought about the ways I could have been using against his little girlfriend. Oh the fun I could have with my Power and her.

He nodded again and we stepped into my room. I pointed towards the space where the Darkling had stood. "It was there. Just watching. I don't think it really saw me til I screamed and then it vanished."

"You screamed?" It was a half laughed question. I didn't frighten easily and obviously the idea of me screaming amused him. He walked over to the space and I ignored his question. Instead I sat back on the bed and watched him. There was nothing to see because a Darkling was nothing solid.

Within minutes he was done. I didn't say anything as he dropped on to the bed beside me and flopped back against the pillows. I mimicked the move and turned off the lights. It wasn't the first time we'd shared a bed, we weren't strangers to each other's sleeping habits and the Mothers hated that. It had been their fear; us bearing a child together. Another issue my birth brought. Give a girl the power and you run the risk of a Son falling for her and producing…What? We didn't know.

The silence of the room suffocated me "It's later." I told him harking back to the suggestion he had put forward at Nickey's earlier.

'She's a new girl, just transferred in. I was just showing her around town." It rolled off like a well-practiced speech or a well learnt lie. Whichever it was I didn't want to hear it. The first meant he had meant to do something with any other girl all along and the second…I couldn't stand the thought of him lying to me.

"You don't owe me any explanations." And I turned away. I gave him my back. Even with all that was happening some part of me craved been in his arms, but I wouldn't give in.

"Sam…Please?" I knew he would want to talk it through. I get me to be ok with it even if all that would mean was that I wouldn't claw her eyes out in class, but I couldn't be ok with any of the days events.

I felt him move on the bed and his hand touched my shoulder. "I'm glad you're home, but things have to be different now." He squeezed my shoulder and his hand trailed down my arm to my hand. Our fingers fitted together then we were both still.

When I woke up in the morning, Caleb was gone.


	6. Chapter 5 School Daze

Chapter 5 School days

Morning times were hardly my favorite time of day. While on vacation over the summer I had slept late and woken to sun streaming through the window; a natural alarm clock which woke me with ease and a smile. The smell of coffee would hang in the air and the sound of cicadas gave the morning its soundtrack. Waking up in Ipswich was quieter. The sun couldn't shine through my curtains even if it was hanging around outside. Sound didn't penetrate the walls of the house and there was no smell of coffee in the air.

Waking up at home in Ipswich was like waking up in a bubble; A bubble that was perfectly decorated and immaculately kept.

Caleb had left sometime in the night though I hadn't expected any romantic morning with a leisurely breakfast, but I wasn't entirely ok with waking up alone. I was fully convinced he should have stayed and made some kind of apology or show of been happy he was back, though all of that could have been blamed on the amount of chick flicks I had watched over the summer. Instead of any breakfast gesture there was a text, '_see you school'_

Better than nothing?

Spenser Academy blessed its students with a fantastic school, education and campus then cursed them with a uniform that was a cross between a adult movie costume and an 80s movie. Shrugging into it after a summer of swimwear and casual clothes was like tying myself into a straitjacket, but it couldn't be avoided. Sure the faculty let the customizations slide, but the essence of the uniform had to be there.

Reluctantly I stood in front of the mirror and assessed myself for changes. Despite a summer away and a disastrous homecoming I still looked like the girl I had been at the end of summer; I still was that girl. I would ascend in the coming year and I was facing that year as a single girl, but I didn't look any different.

I felt different, though.

I felt alone, which was a weird feeling to come to terms with. I was a twin, loneliness was a very foreign concept for someone who had had an other half since the day I was conceived.

I was, past tense, a member of a group of friends yet I had a feeling I would be walking the halls alone for the coming year. My attitude last night had certainly dictated that I wouldn't be welcomed back into the Sons with open arms. Caleb's midnight dash to myself meant little beyond his commitment to the Power, I certainly wasn't expecting a reunion at the school gates.

First day of school and I already couldn't wait for it to be all over.

Spenser was the same school I had started atand it was the school I would graduate from. Yet that morning when I walked from my bike towards the main entrance I felt as if I was approaching a whole new school as a brand new student. My stomach was in knots, my mind was swimming which expectations and my gut instinct told me to turn back to my bike and bolt. The Sons were already inside, it wasn't a freaky sixth sense thing, I was cutting it close to the bell so they were there somewhere. Had I glanced around the parking lot I would have spied their cars, but I didn't need to spook myself further by looking at their modes of transport.

I had got up in plenty of time, but dragging myself from home to school had taken will and a lot of coffee. Maybe too much coffee, maybe that would explain the anxious feeling I was carrying through the doors.

My schedule had been emailed, my books purchased, my next few months mapped out. My next few years and my life beyond that was probably all laid out in my mother's head, plans I wouldn't get a say in.

Heading towards my home room I smiled at the faces I recognized which were numerous, little changed around Spenser from year to year. Few left such a prestigious school and even less were permitted entry.

Then I saw the new guy.

Chase was in the hall talking to a group of people I knew in passing; aside from the Sons everyone else was just a passing friendship. Chase could be a Son, all dark hair, brooding looks and no doubt a great body under the uniform. After my behavior the night before I wasn't sure I would get any recognition from him, but I was wrong.

As I moved towards him he pushed off the wall and stepped out into the hall to meet my stride. "Sam right?" His smile was one of ease and one that made you want to smile back. I tried not to smile back, I hadn't intended on been in a smiling mood.

"Yea Sam Parry. And you're Chase, right?" I smiled again, it was like sneezing or yawning; I couldn't stop. I didn't need to confirm his name, I knew his name.

He nodded.

I nodded.

Apparently we were both good with remembering names.

The group he had been speaking too had dispersed. The hall was emptying as the bell got closer.

I looked down the hall and shifted the books in my arms. "I should get too-"

"You left pretty quick last night. Kinda weird, you all went outside and you didn't come back in…Shame, really." He interrupted my exit speech.

Yea it may have been a shame, but I doubted any of the boys were as _a_shamed as they should have been.

Again I smiled. "Sometimes Nicky's is filled with people you don't want to be around, but i'm sure the Boys kept you company." Actually I wasn't sure about that, I doubted my brother would keep company with anyone beside the others and Kate.

"People? You mean the guy with the attitude and jealousy problem?"

Pogue, my darling brother. Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed his anti social behavior. . Sure that could have been several people; had he just left it at attitude or accompanied it with terrible hair I might have thought he mean Reid, but out of our group only Progue could be blessed with an attitude and a jealousy issue.

I nodded slowly. "Pogue? Yea sometimes I don't want to be around him, but it's hard to escape the brother part of that." I shrugged and shifted my weight to my other foot. I couldn't decide if I should be mad at the way he described Pogue or should I just agree with the truth?

"Brother? Oh i'm sorry..." He smiled, but there was something behind it that made me question if he was sorry at all.

I shrugged again and smiled.

He looked down the hall which was now empty, "I was going to homeroom with Kinneavy, this way right?" He pointed down the corridor.

"Actually thats where i'm headed. He's a total old timer and loves to quote the rule book at you. Just smile and call him sir." I offered the advice with a smile as I stepped off towards the first homeroom of the school year.

Stepping down the halls with Chase suddenly made the year look a lot brighter.


	7. Chapter 6 Classroom Class

Chapter 6 : Classroom Class

Walking into homeroom with Chase was a bold move. Maybe it was a bad move. Every day of my school life I had entered homeroom with one of the Boys. Now, first day of the new school year, I entered with a new boy and a boy who clearly had issues with my brother. Well that made two of us, because I had issues with my brother and the Boys. Screw them.

Walking into that classroom I could feel eyes on me as several members of the class turned to look. Maybe they were taking in the new kid. If was so rare we got new transfers that he was certain to draw attention, that and the fact he was handsome enough to be one of the Sons. Maybe assessing my choice in partner that morning. Maybe they were shocked to see the Parry Girl walk in without her usual escort.

Whatever they were looking at I felt one pair of eyes above all others. Turning and tilting my chin up I looked into the eyes, the dark brown eyes that I knew so well and I smiled before turning quickly back to Chase and taking a seat beside him.

Pogue. Pogue stared at me as I walked with Chase. I could feel his eyes all the way to my seat.

I didn't need to look over my shoulder to see where Caleb would be exchanging looks with my brother before both of them looked back to me. I didn't need to look because I could feel their eyes burning into my skull from behind. Beside me Chase lent back in his seat while I remained rigid and straight. I couldn't relax and I envied his ability to be so calm and relaxed. Envied anyone that couldn't feel those two pairs of eyes searing into their back.

I knew one of them would text me, but I would have been hard pushed to give gambling odds on who would be first. Within seconds a text lit up my phone and I reached for it before the tell tale buzz would alert old Kinneavy. '_I don't like him'_ The first one read simply, and I didn't need the sender info to pick up on that been Pogue. My dear brother, ever welcoming to new students.

His warm welcome was quickly cut off by a second text. _'What was that? I think there's a dent in Caleb's desk' _with that one text I smiled. Trust Kate to find something humorous in the current situation.

If I turned around to smile at her I would catch my brother's eye and my smile would slip to a glare. Glaring at him would only let him know he had gotten to me and ruined my mood. Instead I replied _'What do you mean? I was just entering the room. :)' _I smirked even as I hit send.

Aside from the Sons Kate was the only other friendship I had really cultivated through school. It wasn't that I was elitist, I just didn't crave other friendships beyond those four, but when she was pulled in to the group I welcomed the female presence. Yes it maybe helped that she was my brother's girlfriend, but that was also a hindrance too. It meant I ran the risk of her siding with the Boys over whatever this rift was.

I hoped that text meant she was on my side.

When did there become sides?

She didn't reply.

Maybe she remained impartial.

No one else texted me.

Homeroom was quick, painless and filled with the same monotony of the previous year's first day.

Announcements for sport club sign ups, after school events, and the usual filled the time before the bell sent us heading for first period.

Chase straightened his blazer as he stood, the crest on the pocket shone with its newness of the stitching fresh for the coming year. I stood beside him and smoothed out my skirt. "Well you survived homeroom that's got to be a positive for the school day." I smiled hoping it looked genuine because even as I said it I wasn't quiet sure I had survived homeroom yet.

I could see feel at least one pair of eyes burning into me.

"I think its going to be a very enriching school year" he smiled back, but it didn't entirely fill me with truth or warmth. Something about the smiled seemed veiled as if he was talking about something I wasn't getting.

He had been looking at me, or into me, but his eyes moved past my face and over my shoulder. Before I could turn to look I heard a voice. "Well, well little Parry, looks like a summer away corrupted you more then a life time with me."

When I did turn I almost needed sunglasses for the bright white hair that assaulted me. "Reid" I said his name with the breath of an exhaled sigh. Reid was usually accompanied by sighs of frustration, but this was a sigh of relief; relief he wasn't my brother.

"Saw you at the Dells the other night, man." Reid nodded to Chase casually.

The Dells, the annual last fling before returning to school. Something my ride back had conveniently had me miss. I was curious who Chase had gone with, but not as curious as to who Caleb had left with.

Chase nodded without speaking to Reid. His hand touched my lower back and I turned to look at him. "I'll see you at lunch, Samantha?" He posed it as a question, but I didn't feel I had a choice but to agree.

"Yea, I'll see you at lunch, Chase." Even though there was little choice in the answer, the feeling didn't worry me. The lack of choice in the matter was almost a relief.

Stepping out into the hall alone I was to focused on lunch and my first period class to notice Pogue stood opposite the homeroom door. Despite him staring right at me my mind was too caught up in lunch with Chase to notice my twin brother.

"I don't like him, Sam." he repeated his text message back to me

"I'm capable to reading, Pogue." I looked up at him. Those few inches made it difficult to me eye to eye with him without heels. "Are you incapable of an original thought?" I smirked at him.

He pushed off the walk and closed the cap between us so we should in the middle of the hall. Around us people milled to class, but many looked on at us. It wasn't rare for Pogue and I to argue, he was my brother and arguing was a natural dynamic. Except this wasn't arguing, it felt like a face off, but I wasn't sure what was at stake or what an outcome could be.

He looked down at me and when he spoke his voice was quiet. "There's something off about him Sam, i'm your brother. You big brother. Don't brush off me trying to look out for you."

For a second I felt his caring, I felt his emotions and saw it in his eyes. Then I remember the way he had spoken to me at Nikki's, how he hadn't contacted me over the summer, how he brushed me off first.

I looked up at him, but my voice wasn't as quiet as his. "And there's something off about you and them. You can't just decide when to play big brother Pogue, you brushed me off over the summer. Don't think you can pick up caring about me now." I pulled my back tighter to my shoulder and relished the way it dug into my collar bone. "And you can tell the others to back off to."

I didn't wait for an answer or a come back which I doubted would be in the same gentle tone as his caring comment. Instead of waiting for him to blow up at me I turned on my heel and walked off down the hall in the direction of my first class. With each step I was waiting for him to pull me back, to pull me around to face him so he could yell, but when he didn't touch me or yell I felt my shoulders relax. By the time I reached the door of my first period, Geography, I felt almost calm and again I was filled with thoughts of Chase and lunch.

_Is Sam smitten? Is Pogue wrong to dislike Chase? What will happen at lunch?_

_Thank you SO SO much for the replies, follows & favorites. I am currently prepping for a big move, but I aim to update weekly. Thank you again._

_TC_


	8. Chapter 7 - Fixing a date

Chapter 7 - Fixing a date

Each of my junior year classes had been shared with one or more of the Boys. My mother may have kept us apart all summer, but she had little control over the school schedules as a result I shared several classes with the Boys. For the first time I could remember I wished I wouldn't have shared classes with them, I didn't want to talk with them and I certainly didn't want the judgmental stares they would offer. More often then not they behaved like a collective; if one disliked someone they usually all did. Last year and every year before I had been the same. It wasn't brain washing or peer pressure it was just that between the 5 of us we could usually see someones personality from every angle. Now I would be one the outside and if Pogue didn't like Chase then the chances were the rest of them wouldn't.

Walking into first period I scanned the classroom and breathed a sigh of relief at the lack of Sons in the room. Sometimes relief was short lived. Seconds after the tardy bell the door opened.

"Ah Mr. Garwin how nice of you to join us...late." Mr. Grange glanced up as Reid closed the door. Mr. Grange was the writer of most of Reid's detention slips. Effectively they were each others arch nemesis.

Reid smirked. A trademark I was almost certain he was born with. "Had a little trouble finding the place. Google maps just doesn't cover this place well enough." He pushed off the door and moved towards the open seat beside him.

Mr. Grange choose to pass over the smart comment from Reid, wisely, and moved on with his introduction to Senior Government and Economics. His voice was monotone and droned on. As if the subject wasn't numbing enough I was going to have to fight to stay awake through each lecture.

In my peripheral vision I saw the chair move back from beside the table. I pulled myself up straighter and watched Mr. Grange begin to right the key points of the coming year on the board. I had to block Reid, but I was desperate to look at him because a part of me hoped he would side with me. Reid was notorious for going against the grain. If Caleb said left then Reid went right, if we all met at 8 then he would come at 8.30.

I watched the marker move across the white board, my eye focused on the marks it made and how they turned into words. Department of Justice and Terms of power; if I could focus on the words -

"So, little Parry are you stepping away from the flock?" His voice was close to my left side. His arm pressed against mine. If it wasn't him I might have felt like my personal space was invaded, but with Reid it was just the way he was. He had no boundaries and no filter.

I stared ahead, but my mine wasn't registering the words on the board any more instead it was replaying the past events and wondering how any of this was me stepping away from anything. I couldn't help but wonder if the way he worded it meant he was already siding with the rest of the group.

He hadn't moved away from me when I finally turned and looked at him. I didn't speak at first, I just looked at him.

He stared back evenly and expectantly. "That little display in the hall with you and Pogue...and walking in with that Collins kid. What gives, Parry?"

Parry...not Sam, not girl, just Parry. I was an extension of Pogue, an extension that could be cut off and shut out apparently.

I could have moved seats. I could have ignored him. I could have done a million things. All of which I didn't do. Instead I spoke.

"Garwin..." I laugh as an exhale. "I didn't step away from anyone. You guys shut me out. And that thing in the hall with Pogue. You'll have to talk to Pogue about that. And Chase? Are you asking for you or are you running Caleb's errands now?" I stared into his eyes and offered my own smirk before turning back to the front of the room and appearing to give my attention to Mr. Grange.

Reid didn't speak again, not to me atleast, but he sent a few texts under the desk. I tried not to care what he was sending and who to. I doubted it was Caleb, that boy didn't flaunt rules like Reid or my brother did, but maybe he was sending them to be read later. I tried not to care.

When the bell finally rang I collected my stuff and stood. Reid was already standing and looking at me. "What?" I asked as I pushed the chair back and shouldered my bag. I could move past him, attempt to push past him, but it would be useless if he wanted to stop me he would.

"Sam...Just watch your back." He took a breath and for a moment it seemed he wanted to say something, but thought better of it. He pushed his hands into his pockets and looked over his shoulder. "If you wont let us watch your back, atleast watch it yourself.." He shook his head like he couldn't believe he was saying it or wasn't saying it. With that cryptic messaged he headed to the door.

Growing up Reid had done plenty that stuck with us as a group, but he had never said anything that kept me thinking that way his morning message had. As I headed into the cafeteria his words were still making my brain tick over.

School cafeterias are the nexus of gossip, people watching and social structure. Walking in held another first for me; walking in alone. It also raised a lot of questions for me; where would I sit? Who would I sit with? Should I even bother with lunch? I had never faced lunch alone...the day of firsts was really starting to suck.

Stepping through the doors I kept my eyes ahead and stared at the line that wound along one of the food counters. I wouldn't look to my left. I wouldn't look to the table I had sat at since freshman year, the table I had shared with them, the table they would still be sitting at. I wouldn't look to see if She was sat with them. I wouldn't give any of them the satisfaction of seeing me see them.

I moved through the jumble of tables and chairs and headed to the salad bar. I was so set in my task I didn't register the person behind me until I was already at the check out with a half full tray and a water.

"I'll get that." He said in the same way he had suggested lunch. A suggestion that didn't offer a chance to refuse.

Looking up the arm from the credit card to the face I smile at Chase. "Thank you." I said picking up my tray and waiting til he pocketed the card. "I didn't see you when I came in."

"You seemed determined not to see anyone. Trouble with your brother?" He asked as he nodded to a table close to the salad line and, thankfully, across the room from the Boys.

I didn't speak til we were seated. "Nah, just adjusting back into the school pace I guess." I opened my water and sipped it while I looked at him. He was so relaxed, I wasn't sure if I would be so relaxed if I was dropped into a new school in my senior year. He lent back in his chair without slouching and nodded to more then a handful of people. Of course a few people smiled and said hi to me, I smiled back.

I realized I was still watching him as he bit into an apple slice. "Want some?" he asked pointing a slice and me.

Caught staring. Not exactly smooth, Sam, I chastised myself.

Shaking my head I bit into a cherry tomato and swallowed the juice.

For a few moments we ate in silence.

"So I didn't see you at that party the other night." He mentioned it as if he had been looking for me, but how could he have been?

Again I shook my head and swallowed my mouthful of food. "No, I was traveling back from summer vacation."

"How was the ride?"

"Ride...How do you know I didn't fly?" I asked wondering how much he knew about my summer plans.

He picked up his soda and tilted it to his lips as he spoke. "You didn't fly?" He gulped a mouthful of soda and spoke again. "I mean ride as in any transport...Plan, train, car...camel." He smiled.

I smiled.

But something felt weird and I found myself running through the sentences of transport and using the word ride in them...Ride in a plan sounded off.

When I looked up he was looking at me with the same easy smile. "Can I...Look, I don't want to step on anyone's toes or anything, but...do you want to do something later?"

He asked. Actually asked with an option of rejecting him.

I didn't.

"Sure. I mean the town is lacking entertainment but -"

He jumped in. "Lets grab dinner and take in the sites. I hear this town is pretty historic."

Again I found myself agreeing. "Sure. I know a few old places, like the Putnam Barn and my Family's original home." I smiled and reached for my water.

"Sounds perfect." He smiled and gulped his soda again.


End file.
